The study focused on residential areas of Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; being the fastest growing,
popular commercial and second most populated city in Africa. Reconnaissance survey on
the study revealed that street commercial activities in the study area manifested as street
trading along setbacks and on vehicular lanes during traffic jams and hold-ups,
unauthorized conversion of building use from residential to commercial, attachment of
sheds to building frontages, over-stocked commercial shops and warehouses with goods
spilling over to roadsides, customers milling round the shops and littering roadsides, noisy
audio media advertisement, off street parking by shoppers and commercial drivers along
minor streets serving the major roads and obstructive sign posts. The study utilized primary
data collected through random sampling technique from 150 household heads living along
major 10 streets and traffic volume survey conducted at 2 terminals within 6am to 6pm for
a whole week in the study area. The traffic volume was within the range of 10,490 and
11,226 vehicles per day with the peak hours between 7-10am and 3-5pm of each day. Study
revealed that nearly all (92%) the residents acknowledged that there was a strong
relationship between commercial activities and transportation problems observed in the
area. In addition, about two-fifth (38%) of the residents indicated that conversion of
building use to commercial negatively impacted infrastructure in their houses. Close to half
(40%) of them also agreed that commercial activities affected aesthetics of the streets while
most (68%) of them claimed that commercial activities did negatively impact house rent in
the study area. The study posited that planning tools like building adoptive bye laws, site
planning standards, police power among others could be employed to control development
in the area. These would clear road side trading along setbacks and traffic lanes and reduce
side-attractions caused by commercial activities to drivers and pedestrians. It would also
reduce illegal building conversion and minimize pressure on available infrastructure in the
area.